Craig Hill discusses incorporating the audience into his shows and honing his comedy.
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00:00One day I'm going to go to Leo and say,
00:01do you know I came here because of your egg mayonnaise sandwich in Glasgow?
00:04Just walk straight in.
00:05I love that story, isn't it great?
00:06We'll just walk straight in and go, egg mayonnaise sandwich, please.
00:10And I've got his name and everything, and I've got the people that work there,
00:12and it's a ridiculous connection because of an egg mayonnaise sandwich.
00:16Comedy in Glasgow, the kind of infrastructure of it and stuff,
00:20people, you know, there's the obvious people that have started off doing shows here,
00:25in Edinburgh, other places,
00:27but what can you tell me about this as a place to kind of start off telling stories?
00:34Well, it's got a storytelling tradition and it has had for a long time.
00:38And, you know, I remember people in Glasgow and Liverpool, both very similar cities,
00:43both saying, you know, you'll know you're funny if you play one of their places
00:48because they'll not just laugh for the sake of it,
00:50but you'll need to be as funny as them because the audience are often quite funny.
00:54So I think it's a good place to start your comedy career and test whether you're actually funny
00:59because the audience here have a lot of power,
01:01and if they see any fear in your eyes, you'll know about it.
01:04So I think it's a pretty ballsy place to start your comedy career.
01:07I think it's a good start.
01:08And I didn't realise that at the beginning, you know,
01:11I was just going on stage and doing what I was doing.
01:13But it definitely has informed a lot of the things I laugh at
01:19and playing in front of the audience was a good test for moving everyone else.
01:24Your show is very much in your own voice,
01:28taking things that you, you know, observe here, elsewhere,
01:34translating that, telling it in your own way.
01:37What about like the fact that you can take that with your own accent,
01:41with your own voice, your own story,
01:43and you can take that to Australia, you can take that to New York?
01:46Is comedy just always funny?
01:48It's a good question because you would imagine that,
01:51because loads of people say,
01:52I can't really imagine you're going to do well in Australia.
01:54As long as they understand what you're saying,
01:57you know, as long as they're actually able to understand the words you're saying,
02:00it's the same job.
02:02But you can change it as well.
02:03You know, you can't indulge yourself quite as much as the part as you do in Glasgow.
02:09There's so many funny, I love Glasgow language, you know, Glaswegian,
02:14and there's a lot of comedy in that.
02:15Sometimes you can't use those things and you have to really modify.
02:18But as long as you've changed it enough to explain what it is you're laughing about,
02:22people still get it.
02:23I think comedy is the same almost anywhere.
02:28Australians don't take themselves too seriously, Canadians.
02:30I think this thing is, people think sometimes the comedy is representative of the country,
02:34but it's actually representative of people who go to comedy.
02:37So the same kind of people who would come and see you in Australia
02:39are the same kind of people who would come see you in Glasgow.
02:41They're people who like what you do and they like that kind of patter.
02:44And you might have to slow it down a wee bit and explain some of your references,
02:48but it's fun.
02:49It's quite a revelation to find out that you and your perspective on life
02:54and your Scottishness is still something they can laugh at and relate to.
02:57I'm really chuffed about that.
02:58Yeah.
02:59What about this show that you're bringing to the festival?
03:01What was the kind of start and off point for that?
03:03What was the inspiration for this?
03:05Well, first of all, it's always the title, isn't it?
03:07I've always got all my double entendres.
03:09So I've been sitting on this for a while.
03:11I just think, well, now I can't not have a double entendre title
03:15because that's what I've become known for.
03:17So the title is just a kind of funny kind of invite to my sense of humour.
03:22But the starting point was really, it was interesting
03:26because part of the sitting on this for a while
03:28was the thing I've been sitting on this, I wanted to sing a wee bit more.
03:31And a lot of people said to me, I wish you would sing more in your shows.
03:33And so for the first time ever, I do this big show tune.
03:38My goodness, we've got Craig Hill, the musical.
03:40Oh my God. Let's write that.
03:43And I ended up adding more music into it as well.
03:46I didn't really mean to do that.
03:48So there's a Glaswegian verse of Madonna called Mad Donna
03:51that I do in the show where it's all Madonna songs sang by a Glaswegian,
03:54which immediately I just thought my audience would love that.
03:57And I like it as well. It makes me laugh as well.
03:59But the starting point was really turning 50.
04:02And I never talk about getting older, but it is a funny subject.
04:06And then you realise your audience, sometimes your audience are younger,
04:09sometimes your audience are the same age, sometimes a bit older.
04:11And ageing is quite a funny subject.
04:12So it started off there, but it's really just anything
04:17that has made me laugh in the last couple of years.
04:19It's like a catch-up.
04:21It's like a comedy catch-up on what you've been up to.
04:22And I've got such a nice, loyal, faithful audience.
04:26I feel like we're all just catching up again.
04:28And that's a lovely feeling to go on stage, feeling like it's our show.
04:33It's not just my show, it's our show, it's for us.
04:35When you do a show in Glasgow, you do a show at The Fringe,
04:38where you've been for many years,
04:39do you tend to see people that you've seen for all of the years?
04:44100%.
04:45100%?
04:46Apparently they stand in the queue and compete with each other
04:48about how long, how many times they've been to see me, which is nice.
04:51They tell me, like, I've been to see you seven times this month.
04:53I said, well, I've been nine times.
04:54And I thought it was quite funny, the idea of them competing with each other.
04:58The nice thing about touring and the nice thing about doing Glasgow Comedy Festival
05:01is, like, Edinburgh, you do an hour and it's more or less maximum an hour.
05:05And when you're touring and when you do Glasgow Comedy Festival,
05:09I mean, I do, it's nearly two hours.
05:11So it's like, the first half is like 45 to 50 minutes and then an interval,
05:14and then another hour.
05:16So it's like a proper night out.
05:17And I like that because it means there's a lot of space
05:21in the first half to get to know the audience, which is my favourite thing.
05:24It's like, if I didn't speak to the audience, I wouldn't find some of those corkers.
05:29Sometimes the way people use language, like, I was doing this gig the other night in Livingston
05:33and there was a woman in the audience, came in late, and I said,
05:36what's the kerfuffle? What's happening? What's happening?
05:38She went, oh, she says, I've paid to see you twice.
05:40No moneys because he's landed in the hospital.
05:43And I was like, I love your use of language.
05:46Where are you from? Landed in the hospital. I love it.
05:49And she came from Ayr. And then it was so Scottish.
05:52The guy in front of her turned away.
05:55What were you in hospital for? And I said, you cannae ask that.
05:58That's his private business. And she said, oh, it was his internals.
06:01And I was laughing. I thought it was so Scottish.
06:04You just say exactly what's happening.
06:06There's no privacy at all.
06:08The man's not even asked whether everyone should know his business.
06:12And I thought, God, if I didn't speak to the audience,
06:14I would never find out those characters that have made the show quite special.
06:19And it means that every show becomes really unique.
06:21So I've started writing a wee blog about every show for the audience to put on Facebook,
06:25for them to get a wee mention.
06:27But it's also to remind me of, oh, that's the night that thing happened in Greenark or Glasgow.
06:31So my shows are very off the cuff, but it's usually the first half is off the cuff
06:36and the second half is more or less the show that you did for The Fringe.